Friday, April 27, 2012

#endmalaria: Twitter, Times Square Billboard Call for an End to Malaria

In honor of World Malaria Day, April 25, advocates for the end of the disease are campaigning on the social web with the hashtag #endmalaria — the very hashtag responsible for propelling Ashton Kutcher (@AplusK) to become the first Twitter user with more than 1 million followers in 2009.

Lady Gaga-backed tech startup Backplane created public service announcements, featuring the vocal stylings of Somali-born singer K’naan. Backplane hopes to use its social media expertise to propel Malaria into Wednesday’s most-viral conversations.

The above PSA, recorded by K’naan, highlights that Malaria is the most deadly disease in the world, killing one child every minute. That adds up to 1,500 children dying each day and 655,000 people dying each year. The campaign also points to the mosquito, the insect usually responsible for spreading the disease, as the most deadly creature in the world.

Kutcher wasn’t the last celebrity Twitter user to take the fight against Malaria to Twitter. Major Twitter personalities, such as Perez Hilton, David Arquette, Shaquille O’Neal, K’naan and Interscope artists The Kin are tweeting about the disease Wednesday.

The End Malaria message is also being featured on the NASDSAQ billboard in Times Square.

World Malaria Day was established by the World Health Assembly in 2007. The theme of this year’s awareness campaign is “Sustain Gains, Save Lives: Invest in Malaria,” reflecting the 33% drop in Malaria related deaths in Africa in the past decade.

Do you think Twitter is the best platform to spread awareness of Malaria? Let us know in the comments.